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DID YOU KNOW?

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 7 in 10 people over the age of 65 will require long-term care. Furthermore, uninsured medical expenses are now the #1 concern of men and women over 55 years old. With nursing home care averaging about $90,000 per year and life expectancy rates climbing higher and higher, retirees are faced with a difficult decision: do I purchase long-term care insurance or assume the entire risk by self-insuring and potentially pay the entire expense out of pocket?

SOLUTION

The answer is clear. While self-insuring may seem expedient at this present moment in your life, there simply is no way to predict what kind of care (and how much) you’ll require down the road. Why take the dangerous risk of paying out of pocket—a move that would deplete your savings and severely threaten your financial security—when you can secure your peace of mind with a policy that covers your expenses? You wouldn’t think twice about buying homeowner’s or car insurance, so why should your long-term care be any different?

Homecare aides cost between $30,000 and $40,000 per year—nursing homes are often double or triple that—which means that for 10 years of care you could have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket if you self-insure.

Even if you can afford to set aside the money for future care, the numbers still prove the benefits of LTC insurance. According to California LTC, if you save $3,000 a year and receive a 7% return annually over 30 years, that money grows to just $284,000 total. On the other hand, if you buy a long-term care policy that also costs $3,000 a year, the policy benefit maximum could grow to well over $1,000,000.

Buying an LTC plan ensures that you don’t have to worry about your financial situation if for any reason you are unable to care for yourself in the future, while allowing you to maintain your independence and avoid being a burden to your family. Simply put: you invest now so you don’t have to pay up later. It’s similar to how you pay $2 an hour for parking in order to avoid a $60 ticket—wouldn’t you rather pay a little bit each year than risk having to pay a much larger lump sum in the future?

FINAL WORD

Self-insuring might seem like the more convenient option right now because today you are healthy and active and able-bodied. But this “cross that bridge when we get to it” approach is in fact extremely risky, not to mention stressful—uninsured medical costs have skyrocketed, placing financial and emotional strain on families that could have easily been avoided by taking the time to plan for their future. When it comes to transferring the risk to your insurance company versus assuming the total risk yourself, the choice is easy: insuring through a long-term care policy not only protects your assets, income and savings from a massive financial hit, but also gives you the peace of mind to live your life without stressing about your future care.

But don’t let your “eventually” turn into your loved ones’ “if only.” And you sure don’t want to turn to GOFUNDME for the solution.

If any of this sounds daunting, just know that you can talk to me—at no cost. I will help you figure out how much you may need, and also find a policy that fits into your budget. If you don’t have an agent, please contact me for a free no obligation conversation.

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Who needs long-term care most often?

About 80 percent of women age 65 will need some type of long-term care over the remainder of their lifetimes, while about 60 percent of men will. Once age 65, women need, on average, 3.7 years of care while men on average need 2.2 years of care in their remaining years.